TL;DR
Project: Nouns Wallet is a nouns-branded and nouns-themed (described in the “Description” section below in the proposal) web extension wallet with latest untrusted (t, N) threshold MPC cryptography that can be utilised for empowering active crypto users and pushing the crypto ethos forward by making security accessible to all in a Nounstandingly simple and fun way.
The threshold MPC algorithm is developed in-house and has various advantages over other implementations of threshold MPC (explained in the “How is our threshold MPC different from others’?” section below in the proposal).
Funding ask: total of 500 ETH over 3 rounds (inclusive of 200 ETH for code audit)
Estimated Revenue from project to Nouns treasury: Conservative estimate between $3M to $5M a year until the wallets industry undergoes the next major revolution (plus increased recognition for Nouns). Basis for this estimation is explained in the “Estimated revenue to the Nouns treasury from this project” section below in the proposal.
Description
With our credible cryptography skills, we have an innovative collaborative proposal to offer — a nouns-branded web extension wallet system with threshold MPC options incorporated into it. The wallet will use our in-house untrusted (t, N) threshold cryptography, the latest threshold cryptography, to construct a system that simultaneously solves security and liquidity problems for active crypto users and pushes the crypto ethos forward by catering to the need for such a type of service. The web extension wallet will be focused towards optional threshold security, an intuitive UI/UX and creative Noun branding ideas, suggestions to which we are open to (eg. having a unique Noun wallet logo for every wallet, a tab showcasing the bid for the current noun, and/or other creative suggestions). A very basic design mock-up has been created just to show the threshold signing process (we are open to completely changing the UI/UX as per suggestions of the community and our own improvisations but this part is for Round 3):
Motivation
Hot wallets generally have low security unless linked to an external hardware wallet (eg. Ledgers). Having an untrusted (t, N) threshold MPC wallet system where signatures are split among different devices, will reduce the risk of single point of compromised keys. Multiple wallets will need to sign a transaction, in order to make signatures valid. The entire key will NEVER exist in its complete form - neither during generation nor during signing.
How is our threshold MPC different from others’?
The following feature summary compares our approach with the traditional and the other modern approaches. The smiley emoji indicates a point where we have an advantage over both the traditional as well as the other modern approaches.
| Metric | Traditional Approach | Modern Approach (eg. Binance, CG’18) | Our Approach |
|---|---|---|---|
| Portability | No | No | Yes 
|
| Security | Severe risk of exposing the private key as the key is known by one entity. | No risk at all as the private key does not exist in real life. | No risk at all as the private key does not exist in real life. |
| Key Refresh (without changing the group public key) | Not supported | Supported | Supported |
| User Addition & Removal | Not supported (doing so would change the group public key) | Not Supported | Supported (without affecting the group public key)
|
| Signature Generation | Fixed t entities can participate in the signature generation. | Fixed t entities can participate in the signature generation. | Any t entities can participate in the signature generation.
|
| Key Generation | Generated by single entity | Jointly generate by all the entities | Jointly generated by all the entities |
| Anonymity | Not anonymous | Not anonymous | Both versions - Completely anonymous and Non-anonymous
|
| Key Storage | Secure storage | Secure storage | Secure encrypted cloud storage
|
| Key Recovery | Not supported | Not supported | Supported
|
| Communication between users (key generation) | Requires secure channel | Requires secure channel | Works with any public channel
|
| Communication between users (presigning) | Requires secure channel | Requires secure channel | Works with any public channel
|
| System Setup | Supports online/offline | Supports online/offline | Supports online/offline |
| Knowledge of the set of presigners during signing | Yes | Yes | No
|
(For less than t participants)
Funding Rounds
-
Round 1 - 50 ETH
- This round will deliver the proof of concept via testing in an internal network of users, on the following signature schemes:
- ECDSA
- EdDSA
- BLS
- This round will deliver the proof of concept via testing in an internal network of users, on the following signature schemes:
-
Round 2 - 150 ETH
- This round will have two proposals - one for a B2B wallet and another for a B2C wallet. We will let the Nouns community decide on one of the two paths or both.
- Creating a basic MPC based Web Extension Wallet with simple send and receive functionality.
- Include Threshold signing in the wallet.
-
Round 3 - 300 ETH
- Production-ready code
- An intuitive web 3 UI with the branding ideas discussed in the “description” section and recommendations from the Nounders and the Nouns community incorporated.
- The revenue generation model through swap fees - a percentage of the swap fees going to the Nouns treasury and the dev team for maintenance.
The cost allocations for all three rounds with their approximate timelines are given in the table below.
| Funding Round | Funding Ask | Cost Allocation | Timeline |
|---|---|---|---|
| Round 1 | 50 ETH | All 50 ETH to the contributors for building the proof of concept of the in-house untrusted (t, N) threshold scheme. | Approx 2 months from date of funding. |
| Round 2 | 150 ETH | All 150 ETH to contributors for building the B2C/B2B/Both wallet systems and to expand team for round 3 | Approx 3 months post round 1. |
| Round 3 | 300 ETH | 200 ETH for code audits which would earn the product credibility in the market. 100 ETH to contributors for building launch-ready product. | Yet to be decided. Will discuss with the Nouns community during rounds 1 & 2. Will also depend on time for audits and availability of funds to expand team post round 2. |
| Total | 500 ETH | - | - |
If proof of concept (round 1) is not completed within the given timeline, Nouns DAO is welcome to discontinue funding this project.
Estimated Revenue to the Nouns treasury from this project
MetaMask average daily revenue over the last 2 months from fees looks like around $200,000 a day (translating to $70M a year approx) from eyeballing this chart. More details on daily and cumulative swap fee revenue for MetaMask is on this dashboard and this article.
Exodus quarterly revenues for the last 2 year’s Q3s have been $18M and $11M respectively, details on this page.
We aim to compete with MetaMask and other hot wallets by offering the latest threshold MPC system built into a web extension hot wallet.
Going by the numbers above, we conservatively estimate that this project could eventually start generating $3M - $5M per year as swap fees. It could go as high as $70M like MetaMask.
A major portion of that revenue would keep going to the Nouns DAO treasury and a small portion to the devs team for maintenance.
Disclosures & background of contributors
The contributors of this project are creators of a subdivision (the R&D department) of the cryptocurrency exchange ZebPay. We are spinning out of ZebPay as the “Insaanity” group, and hence looking for independent funding.
A year and a half ago we began the crypto R&D journey with few principles and beliefs that brought us together. Insanity’s first goal is to reform the financial infrastructure of the world through crypto. Building this threshold scheme is just one of the many contributions we plan to bring to the crypto space in order to help spread the crypto ethos.
The people behind this project are:
Prashanth Irudayaraj (Ex — KEEP Network: Research Manager & Head of Operations, Ex — Tesla: Senior Program Manager, Current — ZebPay: VP of R&D, Current — Founder: Insaanity)
https://ca.linkedin.com/in/pirudayaraj
Dr. Sharmila Selvi (PhD Computer Engineering, Principal Scientist at ZebPay R&D specialising in cryptography, blockchain and cloud security)
https://in.linkedin.com/in/dr-sharmila-s-07315b42
Roshan Noronha (Senior Developer & Research Engineer for wallets at ZebPay R&D)
https://in.linkedin.com/in/roshangregorynoronha
Arya Shah (Product Manager for wallets, Senior Data Scientist, Quant Lead and Tokenomics expert at ZebPay R&D)
Arya is not on other social media. Hence submitting his GitHub profile. Other research work he has done for ZebPay is off GitHub or in private repos, not yet public.
Krina Shah (Senior Data Scientist and Tokenomics expert at ZebPay R&D)
https://in.linkedin.com/in/krina-shah-00945916b
Naqiyah Dhariwala (Senior Data Scientist and Web Developer at ZebPay R&D)
www.linkedin.com/in/nakiyahdhariwala98
Pratiksha (Senior Developer at ZebPay R&D)
https://www.linkedin.com/in/pratiksha-a2a073183
Aasif Javid (Junior Developer intern at ZebPay R&D)
www.linkedin.com/in/aasif-javid-091
Rana Singh (Junior Developer intern at ZebPay R&D)